Pretec 12 GB CF - just $14,900

Riding on the back of news yesterday about dropping flash memory prices
Pretec today announced their new range of high capacity Compact Flash
cards. These new cards (marked as '80x') will be available as 3 GB, 4
GB, 6 GB and 12 GB. The first three cards (3, 4 & 6 GB) are available
in Japan as of today, the larger 12 GB card by the end of the year. Despite
lower NAND flash prices these cards are still unbelievably expensive,
the 3 GB card is 166,000 YEN ($1,490), the 4 GB card is 207,00 YEN ($1,860),
the 6 GB card is 525,000 YEN ($4,700), the 12 GB card is expected to be
1,659,000 YEN ($14,900). Once you get over the price the next question
must be would you be willing to put so much data in the trust of one card?

Phil: There are cheaper ways to get 12 GB of CF
storage, for $1500 you can buy three 4 GB Hitachi Microdrives and be on
the safer side of loosing everything to just one card.

UPDATE 30/May/2004: Earlier I wrote that you could
buy three Creative Labs Nomad Muvo2 4GB devices and remove the Hitachi
Microdrives. Well that was true as of earlier this week however Creative
are now shipping a new version of the Muvo2 which has Microdrives which
will not operate as CF+ devices, you can tell these new Muvo2's by their
packaging (click
here).

Pretec 12 GB Compact Flash card, by the end of the year, but at a price